


Nightmare

by writermouse



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 09:21:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17464790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writermouse/pseuds/writermouse
Summary: Kokichi wakes from a terrible nightmare about Kaito, Kaito comforts him.





	Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panta/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Panta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panta/pseuds/Panta) in the [Nicolais_Danganronpa_Requests](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Nicolais_Danganronpa_Requests) collection. 



_Don’t cry. Stop. You’re going to wake him up. You have to stop. Don’t cry._ Kokichi’s self directed scolding did nothing to stem the flow of tears from his eyes. It was the middle of the night, save for his sleeping boyfriend, he was alone. There was no performance to give. Which meant there was nowhere to channel his feelings, and his mask wouldn’t stay on. He bit down on his pillow and willed his shoulders to stop shaking. Nothing was working.

“It was just a stupid dream,” he mumbled to himself, but his catchphrase echoed back at him in his mind, “That’s a lie!” Though it seemed anything but cheerful. His sobs redoubled and he couldn’t keep back a few whimpering gasps.

Kaito blinked awake, slowly coming to awareness of what was happening in the bed beside him. He felt the bed shaking ever so slightly and heard a muffled cry. Kokichi. He rolled over and saw him wrapped around his pillow like an octopus, arms and legs tucked around it, and his face buried in the top. With his head down, Kaito could only make out a mess of purple hair, but there was no doubt that Kokichi was crying. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, but handling Kokichi when he was too upset to really _be_ Kokichi, at least to his own mind, had to be done extremely carefully.

“Hey baby,” Kaito kept his voice as soft and low as possible, knowing how easily Kokichi startled. His heart broke when he saw him flinch away from the sound anyway. “Hey, c’mere.” He opened his arms to make the invitation clear, but didn’t touch him yet, in case that would make it worse.

Kokichi held his breath, internally begging himself to stop crying. Maybe if he just didn’t answer, Kaito would go back to sleep and they wouldn’t have to acknowledge that this was happening. He wouldn’t be pathetic and panicking over nightmares and he wouldn’t be going to drive away the person who cared about him by being too needy. It would be fine.

However, eventually he needed to breathe again. After an inhale, “I’m sorry!!!” tore its way out of his mouth, and he flopped back towards Kaito in defeat, body entirely wracked with sobs.

Kaito gathered Kokichi to his chest and started softly rocking him. “It’s alright. You can cry. I’m here.” It had taken a lot of time for him to get used to the idea that sometimes, the only thing he’d be able to do was hold Kokichi while he cried. He’d felt that a hero should be able to fix it. But since coming to that understanding, he always started with offering his company and support and validating Kokichi’s feelings. The lack of pressure seemed to put him in the best state for being able to talk about things.

Kokichi’s fingers found Kaito’s shirt and he clung to him tightly, burying his face in his neck to cry. It was far easier if he didn’t have to be seen, even knowing that Kaito knew how upset he was. He wondered what to tell him. The truth was, as always, against his initial impulse, and might make him feel guilty, but he did rather want comfort regarding it. And he was likely too tired to steer the conversation otherwise.

Kaito kept rocking him and began softly petting his hair. “Do you wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nightmare,” Kokichi mumbled against him, winding his shirt tighter against his hands.

“I’m sorry, Kokichi,” Kaito sighed, “I’ve got you. You’re safe now. It’s over. Why don’t you tell me about it?” He didn’t want to push too hard, but Kokichi answering pretty quickly gave him reason to suspect that it was a talking-would-help kind of day.

Kokichi shook his head, “Can’t tell you.” He knew he would. Because his heart was breaking and he needed to hear Kaito tell him it wasn’t true. But he hated it. He didn’t want to need so much. And, if he did, he didn’t want it to be like this.

“You can tell me anything,” Kaito corrected him immediately. He slipped his hand under Kokichi’s cheek and lifted his face enough to kiss him. “I love you. You don’t have to tell me. But you can.”

Kokichi avoided his eyes and wiped his tears away, trying to steady his breathing enough to explain. “It was you… You didn’t love me…”

“That sounds scary,” Kaito nodded, “I do love you though. And I won’t stop.”

“You said it was my fault,” Kokichi began trembling again, “That I didn’t deserve it. That I was bad. I should be alone. I wasn’t good enough. Nobody could love me…” he trailed off into a fresh bout of tears.

Kaito grimaced and squeezed him tighter. All the thoughts he knew Kokichi had about himself, coming out of his own mouth in that dream. It must have been so painful to hear. “Baby, I’m sorry you had to hear that. It’s not true. Not at all. You’re good. You’re so good. I love you so much.”

“Y-you hit me,” Kokichi whimpered.

Kaito felt his anxiety jump before he realized that obviously Kokichi was talking about in the dream. He’d gotten his temper under control and hadn’t hit Kokichi for a very, very long time, though it occasionally did take him stepping away for some deep breaths, but the idea still worried him from time to time.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that probably seemed realistic,” Kaito sighed, “Where did I hit?”

Kokichi pointed to his left cheek.

Kaito gritted his teeth. It was probably very realistic. That part could just be a memory. The rest wasn’t though. He would never have said things likes that. He gently tilted Kokichi’s face so he could reach and kissed his cheek. “I’ll never hurt you again. I promise. And if I did, it would be my fault, not yours.”

“Don’t leave me,” Kokichi whispered, squirming around in his arms to be able to cling tighter and kiss him back.

“I won’t,” Kaito promised, making his voice and face as sincere and open as possible. Kokichi was good at picking up lies and he could only hope he wasn’t too hysterical to do it. “I love you. I’ll never hurt you again. You’re good. And I’ll stay with you forever.” 


End file.
